Geoff,
This is the Touratech system. When I had my 640 a few years back you could not buy these from TT, had to buy them via KTM UK.

The boxes are 1.5 mm and while are well designed, locks and lid seals are good. the mounting arrangement is poor, takes up to much room inside the box and after the paint wears off the rack there is no way to take up the extra clearence. Both my boxes leaked around the bases.
The rack broke a couple of times, and had to be welded, not crash damage just bad roads.
Overall 6 / 10 form over function

Steve

Take a look at the Touratech Rack it has an extra brace at the rear which mounts under the mudguard on the XRV. Instructions on this page show it best.
Touratech UK Webshop

I will fit TT rack and depending how this thread goes MM panniers. Metal Mule are releasing a Version 2 in March with small improvements to mounts.

I'd recommend Andy Strapz soft panniers. Worked well for me, no welding required after a tumble and I think a lot of the people I travelled with who had hard luggage would go with them next time.

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Chris
www.motocrossafrica.co.uk

That's slightly better than the MM one, but will probably fail in the same way, it's the same basic shape...

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Just a question:

Has anyone just fitted their alupanniers with relatively thin stainless steel nuts and bolts?

The idea is that you dont take the panniers off (have an insert bag or something) and if you crash the nuts will break off and afterwards you just put in some new ones?

This would minimize damage to pannier, rack and you.

Downside is that you can't easily take the panniers off.

What do ppl think?

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Peter Kongsbak
South East Asia, USA, Central and South America and Scandinavia.

It all depends on how many bolts you intend on using and where you place them.

A smaller bolt will obviously break before a fat one but i guess 4 smaller bolts half the size of 2 larger bolts will spread the load more evenly. In my experience, the fixings tend to rip out of the softer aluminium box rather than the steel frame so a smaller but will cause less damage.

If you never intend of removing your boxes then 16 well placed smaller bolts would be stronger 4 fat ones.

Just take into consideration that you may HAVE to remove your boxes at times to squeeze through pay booths, car parks and hotel front doors

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Hey,

I followed this thread quite a wile because I want to buy new panniers. My main question of choice is, like Toneski (Tony): plastic vs alu. Most contributions to this thread are about different manufacturers of alu panniers but not about alu vs plastic. Well, I had experiences with the "plastic" panniers of Hepco&Becker, the "junior" set. I used them on my BMW F650 in 2001 for 8 month traveling in the Middle East and in 2004/2005 for 18 month traveling around the world. I was very satisfied with these panniers. They are light in weight, have a side lid in stead of a top lid, are easy to mount and strong. Their best feature however is the slightly curfed lid. Because of this, the pannier doesn't dig in the surface in case of accident. It is the digging in that causes most of the damage. I just have one point of critic. Once I dropped the bike and a sharp stone just hit the edge of the lid of one of the panniers. Just on that spot the pannier leaked a little bit and I cann't repair this damage. With this experience I don't know why I should opt for alu panniers, keeping in mind all the stories about deformed or torn apart alu panniers in this thread. Anyone who has an argument alu panniers above "plastic" panniers? Like to hear it!

Good travels, Mart

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Voorbij de horizon / beyond the horizon: www.wonderfultravels.nl